The Pink Panther 2 (2009)
The Pink Panther 2 is a 2009 American detective comedy film directed by Harald Zwart. It is the eleventh installment in the The Pink Panther film series and the sequel to the 2006 film The Pink Panther, a reboot of the popular comedy series. The film was released on February 6, 2009 in North America. In the film, Inspector Clouseau must team up with detectives from other countries to rout a daring burglar, The Tornado, who has returned after a decade of inactivity. Steve Martin, who reprised the role of Clouseau, originated by Peter Sellers, polished the original script written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber in November 2006. MGM, partnering with Columbia Pictures on the sequel, hired the team of Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel to perform a further rewrite in January 2007. Principal photography began in Paris on August 20, 2007, then moved to Boston several weeks later, where filming ended on November 2, 2007. Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai appears as the criminology expert Sonia Solandres. John Cleese replaces Kevin Kline as Chief Inspector Dreyfus with Jean Reno and Emily Mortimer reprising their roles as Clouseau's partner Ponton and Clouseau's girlfriend Nicole. Beyonce Knowles did not return for the sequel Andy García, Yuki Matsuzaki andAlfred Molina round out the cast as detectives, Italian Inspector Vicenzo Brancaleone, Japanese Inspector Kenji Mazuto and British Chief Inspector Randall Pepperidge. It was released on Blu-ray Disc and DVD on June 23, 2009. Like its predecessor, the sequel received negative reviews from critics but did a moderate business of $75,871,032 worldwide. When the master thief, the Tornado, begins stealing expensive artifacts (the Magna Carta in London, the Turin Shroudin Turin, and the Imperial Sword in Kyoto), the Government of France assembles a Dream Team of Amateur Detectives to solve the case. Inspector Clouseau is reassigned from his task as a parking officer by Chief Inspector Dreyfus to join the Dream Team in Japan, site of the Tornado's recent heist. At the airport, as soon as he is stepping over the border and leaving France, news breaks that the Pink Panther Diamond has also been stolen, prompting Clouseau, who had up to that point been wary of leaving, to say, "I told you". Clouseau travels back to the scene of the crime, where the other members of the Dream Team, Inspector Pepperidge (Great Britain), Vincenzo (Italy), Kenji (an electronics specialist from Japan), and Sonia (a researcher and criminology expert from India), are gathering. They go to Rome to investigate a black market fence, Alonso Avellaneda, who deals with The Tornado. Assuming he is The Tornado, the Dream Team question him while Clouseau snoops around. Avellaneda successfully vindicates himself by demonstrating that he lacks a bullet-wound to the right shoulder – the Tornado was shot in that shoulder during a theft over a decade ago. After they leave, he meets with the real Tornado. Later on that night, Clouseau and his partner, Ponton, spy on Avellaneda, using a wire they have planted on him, as he takes a date out for dinner. Unfortunately, the mission is compromised when they find Vincenzo and Clouseau's girlfriend, Nicole, together at the restaurant. Having been banned for burning down the restaurant three months earlier, Clouseau disguises himself as a dancer and attempts to switch the wire to Nicole's table. In the process, he ends up burning down the restaurant again. At the same time, The Tornado steals the Pope's ring, an act which begins to turn public opinion against the Dream Team. When Clouseau's acts of foolishness aggravate the situation, he is voted off the team, with only Sonia sympathizing with him. Shortly afterward, Clouseau is called to an office where they see the Tornado has killed himself, and left a suicide note claiming he destroyed the Pink Panther – regarding it as being so beautiful that he could not bring anyone other than himself to own it – and left the other treasures to be recovered. Examining a key they found in the Pope's Chambers, they successfully match the DNA of the victim with DNA of the Tornado acquired when he was shot, and thus believe themselves to have solved the case. However, Clouseau is unconvinced and believes the Tornado was not the thief. For their victory in recovering the stolen items (minus the Pink Panther), a celebration is thrown in the Dream Team's honor. Clouseau, who was not invited, tries to convince Dreyfus that the real thief is still at large, but is ignored. Dreyfus relays to the group that Clouseau told him Sonia was the thief, and the group, treating the idea as a joke, work out a plausible explanation for how she could have done it; as the Tornado's ex-lover, she would have in-depth knowledge of his methods, and has set up a situation to draw all attention to the thefts of the other artifacts while leaving her free to sell on the Pink Panther as the only treasure that could be cut up and sold on without suspicion. As Sonia tries to leave, Nicole asks her to take everything out of her purse. Sonia pulls out a gun, and after initially threatening to shoot Nicole, she shoots Clouseau, but the bullet hits the medal of honor. She then runs upstairs. Clouseau and the rest of the Dream Team chase her all around the building, while they all (except for Clouseau) make fools of themselves. Finally cornered, Sonia threatens to destroy the Pink Panther, and Clouseau successfully goads her to do so. Clouseau reveals that she had destroyed a fake gem(the one he had been given as a reward for saving the original), which he had switched with the real one, and that the Tornado, a master thief and a recognized authority on valuable gems, would have recognized this; therefore, his suicide note – where he praised the beauty of the gem – was forged and he was actually murdered. He reveals that he had given Sonia's car a ticket two days before the Pink Panther was stolen, contradicting her alibi of having been delayed to the crime scene because of her flight. Dreyfus tries to claim credit for having appointed Clouseau to his parking job, but Clouseau, remembering Dreyfus told him to deny this to anyone who asked, rebukes the claim. Clouseau later marries Nicole. Like its predecessor, the sequel has received generally negative reviews from critics. As of June 12, 2011, Rotten Tomatoes reported that 12% of critics gave positive reviews based on 129 reviews, the consensus being "Underutilizing its talented cast, The Pink Panther 2 is little more than a series of lame slapstick gags". Per another review aggregator, Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received a 36 approval rating based on 30 reviews. On its opening weekend, the film opened #4, grossing $12 million in 3,243 theaters with a $3,573 average. The film grossed $35,922,978 domestically and $40,023,637 in foreign countries totaling $75,946,615 worldwide, bringing in a slight $5,000,000 more than the film's actual budget. The film was nominated for two Razzies: Worst Actor (Steve Martin) and Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel.